London: GlaxoSmithKline Plc expects to start final-stage Phase III trials on a new HIV/AIDS drug next year, following encouraging results presented at a US medical conference on Friday.
The world's biggest supplier of AIDS medicines said brecanavir, formerly known as GW640385, had shown potent antiviral activity after 24 weeks in a clinical study involving 31 patients.
Brecanavir belongs to a class of HIV drugs known as protease inhibitors, which have formed a central plank of triple combination therapy since the 1990s.
As a new agent, it may be useful in treating patients infected with strains of HIV that have become resistant to other protease inhibitors.
Results presented at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Washington showed 81 per cent of patients on a drug regimen including brecanavir had levels of virus in their blood that were undetectable by standard tests after 24 weeks of treatment.
The response rate was similar whether or not patients were resistant to other protease inhibitors.
The encouraging results for the drug, which Glaxo is co-developing with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc, follow a setback for another experimental HIV compound that was dropped from development in October.
Aplaviroc belonged to a new class of HIV medicines called CCR5 inhibitors and had already started Phase III tests before Glaxo found it could cause serious liver problems in a small number of patients.
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